MZ50 Custom Singlecut

Tigereye Singlecut

We built this interpretation of Lester Polfuss’ original design from the 50s at Marco’s request. Marco naturally had a few wishes to adapt the guitar to his needs. The first step was choosing the wood: light one-piece Khaya mahogany, our choice for the body and neck. Indian rosewood was used for the fingerboard and we chose a beautifully flamed piece of Bosnian maple for the top.
The pickups were hand-wound by Harry Häussel and represent a modern interpretation of the classic PAF sound. A modern TOM made of solid brass was used for the bridge, as well as an aluminum tailpiece for the best sustain and a beautiful open and “woody” sound character. As a small modern upgrade, we used Schaller tuners for the best tuning stability. Other upgrades include the 2-way truss rod and the volute at the transition between the neck and headstock for more stability. The fingerboard radius was designed as a compound and the scale length was extended to 25″ for a little more string tension and a crisper sound. The neck-body transition is also comfortably rounded and has a long tenon, which extends well below the neck pickup, a maximum glue surface for the best stability and vibration transmission. As a wheelchair user, Marco had special ergonomic requirements, so we moved the output jack to the top and gave the back of the body a shaping (belly cut).
We refined the spectacular maple top with a tiger eye finish and gave the headstock a matching veneer made from a leftover piece of the top, in which the cover of the truss rod is inlay’d. This is what we mean by Custom Shop: here you get YOUR guitar – without compromise!